1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to currency validation apparatus, and more particularly to such apparatus which identifies the genuineness and denomination of currency by sensing the magnetic characteristics of a piece of currency along a predetermined scan line.
2. The Prior Art
The major obstacle to the utility of machines which automatically handle currency, such as bill changers and the like, has been the inability to recognize the genuineness in denomination of more than a limited number of denominations of currency. Machines are available which recognize a dollar bill as genuine, and supply change in the form of a plurality of coins. Some of such machines are able to sense the difference between a one dollar bill and a five dollar bill, and return the proper change accordingly, but it has not heretofore been possible to sense the genuineness and denomination of all denominations of bills, making automatic multiple denomination transactions, (say 3 or more) impossible when larger denomination bills are concerned. It is however, very desirable to provide an automatic mechanism for determining the genuineness and denomination of various small and large denomination bills, so that the intervention of a human teller or cashier is not necessary in transactions which involve bills of large denomination. Such devices may be employed for the automatic vending of relatively valuable articles such as airline and railroad tickets, or for changing from the currency of one country to another. Such apparatus is also useful for dispensing gambling tokens of relatively large denomination, or of smaller denominations in such quantity as to equal various small and large denomination bills.